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annual number of curies of each of the major cosmogenic radionuclides
produced in the air over Wisconsin (56,154 square miles) to be as follows:
11.9 Ci of C-14, 552 Ci of H-3, and 15,100 Ci of Be-7.
G. While you may remember NORM as a character from the TV sitcom
“Cheers,” in the field of environmental radioactivity NORM is an acronym for
Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material. The air, soil, water, vegetation, and
even our bodies are NORM because they contain varying amounts of
naturally occurring radioactive atoms. The most common NORM
radionuclides are uranium, thorium, radium, potassium-40, and carbon-14.
Because of the low radionuclide concentrations in NORM, the unit used to
express these values is the picoCurie or pCi. A pCi is a very small number,
one-trillionth of a curie. As mentioned above, a curie is 2.22 trillion
disintegrations per minute. Hence, one pCi equals 2.22 disintegrations per
minute.
H. The standard 70 kilogram (154 pound) adult contains the following amounts
of the aforementioned radionuclides: 30 pCi of uranium, 3 pCi of thorium, 30
pCi of radium, 110,000 pCi of K-40, and 400,000 pCi of C-14 (International
Commission of Radiation Protection – Publication 39 and National Council on
Radiation Protection and Measurements –Report No. 94).
I. Radioactive elements enter our bodies through the food we eat and the air
we breathe. C-14 and K-40 react chemically in the same manner as the
stable or non-radioactive isotopes of these elements and are continually
being incorporated into the plants and animals in the food chain. Because the
chemical composition of our bodies is internally regulated with respect to the
amount of stable carbon and potassium present, the concentrations of C-14
and K-40 are regulated as well. Uranium, thorium, and radium also enter our
bodies through the food chain, but to a lesser extent as evidenced by the pCi
quantities of NORM in our bodies mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Because radium is chemically similar to calcium, long-lived radium-226 (halflife
= 1600 years) will build up in the skeleton. Uranium and thorium exhibit a
lesser degree of build up. Because of the relative chemical inactivity of Ra,
Th, and U compared to the C and K, it takes a longer time to remove the Ra,
Th, and U once they are incorporated in our bodies.
J. The amount of NORM you consume each day depends upon the foods you
eat. Norm has been measured in many food items. Foods high in potassium
have a correspondingly higher amount of K-40. For example, a serving of
dried apricots has 409 pCi of K-40; a fresh banana, 368 pCi; a glass of
orange juice, 409 pCi; bran flakes, 155 pCi; a glass of skim milk, 285 pCi; a
medium potato, 690 pCi; spinach, 97 pCi; substituting lite salt (potassium
chloride) for 1.2 grams of common table salt, 499 pCi; and 3 oz. of chicken
breast, 180 pCi. (If you know the grams of potassium in your food, multiply by
818 to get the number of pCi of K-40). Because the body’s K-40 is chemically
regulated along with non-radioactive potassium, K-40 will not build up in the
body but vary as stable potassium varies as a function of muscle mass and
age.
K. The most common mode of radium ingestion is via drinking water. As
recently noted in the Journal-Sentinel, 53 Wisconsin communities will have to
reduce the radium content of their drinking water because it contains more
than the EPA allowable concentration of 5 pCi/liter, (about 19 pCi per gallon).
269 We Energies
Coal Combustion Products
Utilization Handbook